The Production and Preparation 
of Raw Cotton for the Spinner. 



-BY- 



A. M. ALLEN, 



Vice President and General Manager, Modern Gin and Compress Co. 



LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS. 



An Address delivered before The National Association of Cotton Manu- 
facturers at its 97th Meeting, Hotel Aspinwall, Lenox, Mass., 
September 30, 1914. 




The Production and Preparation 
of Raw Cotton for the Spinner. 



-BY- 




Ai M. ALLEN, 



Vice President and General Manager, Modern Gin and Compress Co. 



LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS. 



An Address delivered before The National Association of Cotton Manu- 
facturers at its 97th Meeting, Hotel Aspinwall, Lenox, Mass., 
September 30, 1914. 




Ac 



By transfer 
tta 3 tot* 



THE PRODUCTION AND PREPARATION OF RAW COTTON 
FOR THE SPINNER. 

A. M. Allen, Vice President and General Manager, Modern Gin and 
Compress Company, Little Rock, Arkansas. 

In the production of cotton, the character of the raw material 
can, to a marked degree, be determined by the producer, but 
the knowledge on the part of the producer as to what staple and 
character of cotton gives the best results in the hands of the 
spinner is, generally speaking, very meagre. 

The planter by cultivating a particular soil in the same way, 
perhaps, that he and his forefathers have treated the same soil 
for many years and in some cases for generations, obtains a 
bale of cotton which may sell above or below the bale of cotton 
produced by his neighbor, but which, to him, may appear to be 
practically the same cotton. He himself, however, is unable to 
make a comparison and determine the elements which make the 
one more valuable to the spinner than the other. He is not, 
therefore, equipped to work intelligently for the improvement 
of his raw material, the production of which he in most cases 
has chosen for his life business; in other words the planter is 
without full knowledge of the value of his cotton in terms of 
yarn. Without this knowledge, to a greater or less degree, the 
planter is not prepared to make much advance towards reducing 
the cost of production by increasing his yield and improving his 
staple and grade. Education along these lines is of importance 
to the spinner and any assistance rendered to the planter by the 
spinner will certainly bring profits to both. 

When once the cotton has matured and split open the boll, 
no longer needed, it is then ready to start on its perilous journey 



to the spinner, during which this delicate and valuable fibre is 
subjected to abusive treatment that subtracts from the value it 
possesses at this time, a sufficient number of millions of dollars 
every year, which, if employed in extending the spinning 
industry in America, should in ten years give to the United 
States the added capacity to manufacture her entire cotton 
crop. 

The unnecessary waste of approximately $100,000,000 annu- 
ally is but an addition to the cost of production, ultimately paid 
by the planter. I use the term unnecessary waste, and do so 
advisedly, for the loss occasioned by the mutilation of the fibre 
in the process of ginning and compressing, in exposing the raw 
cotton to the elements, in dragging it through dirt, oil and 
deleterious solutions, in putting it in packages that force the cost 
of transportation far beyond that required, in putting the bales 
in such form as to invite disastrous fires, in clinging to a method 
of wrapping and a style of bale that most easily gives to the 
dishonest man the best opportunity to plate his bale, to water- 
pack his bale, to substitute old bagging and cheap foreign 
matter for cotton, all of which, I say, is unnecessary and costs 
more initially and throughout the entire process than it costs to 
prepare the cotton in such manner as to eliminate all the above 
items. The proof of this is found in the fact that it is now being 
done in a practical and commercial way in sufficient magnitude 
to make futile all arguments against it. 

The enormous economic waste in the handling of this Ameri- 
can cotton crop has been the subject of discussion for a genera- 
tion by the planter and his organizations, by the transportation 
companies, the bankers, the insurance companies and the 
spinners, both in America and Europe, until our Government 
has awakened to a full realization of its magnitude and its use- 
lessness, which, like some great disaster, imposes a loss felt by 
all our people and one which becomes a heavy tax, especially 
upon planter and spinner. The Agricultural Department is 
devoting great energy and skill to the education and training of 
the planter to aid him in increasing his yield and improving the 
character of his cotton. 



The unsightly and carelessly packed American cotton bale as 
delivered to the European spinner, our best customer, and 
whose patronage has in a large degree contributed to the wealth 
and prosperity of this nation, has so discouraged him because 
of the seeming uselessness of his appeal for better methods, that 
within the past two or three years, more especially he has turned 
his attention with unusual vigor to the development of cotton 
growing territory in other portions of the world. We, the 
Americans, have sat idly by, smug in the belief that no other 
country on the globe could produce this valuable product in 
competition with us, blandly remaining blind to the fact that it 
requires only soil, sunshine, rain and industry to produce cotton. 
The rapid advance of the past few years in the acquirement of 
knowledge of how to build productive soils has shown us that 
no country has a monopoly on the production of the raw material 
which furnishes food and raiment for the human race. 

The dream of the foreign spinner has been to free himself from 
the well nigh intolerable conditions imposed upon him by the 
American cotton interests. This is so apparent to the observing 
mind that " he who runs may read," and it is encumbent upon 
every loyal American to remove the hoodwink from his eyes 
and set himself to the task of so bettering the American cotton 
industry as to preserve our hold upon the trade and the foreign 
customer. To do this, we must deliver to him the raw material 
in such attractive condition as will make complaint unnecessary, 
and make strenuous effort to cultivate his good will as we seek 
to do in all other branches of trade. In view of the fact that we 
grow more than 65 per cent, of the world's cotton, is it not 
lamentably short-sighted in us to delay in adopting the most 
modern and up-to-date methods and machinery for producing 
and preparing this product for the market. 

Our first study should be of the soil, seed and cultivation. 
What more important than the production in one district of one 
variety of cotton and that the best adapted to the particular 
soil, climate and conditions of that particular district? Our 
Government is doing splendid work along these lines and in some 



cases local bankers and merchants are supplementing the work 
of government agents by offering substantial prizes for best 
results. If the spinners will add their quota of encouragement 
by recognizing the greater value of large quantities of the same 
arade and staple in one neighborhood by the prices which they 
pay for it, the planter will then have substantial inducement for 
bettering his grade and staple. Results will be obtained when 
the planter finds that it pays. 

One of the most unfortunate obstacles in the procuring of a 
better grade of cotton is the custom in many local communities 
of paying practically the same price for all cotton. The planter, 
being unable to class his own cotton, discovers, however, that his 
neighbor who neither selects his seed nor cultivates with care, 
and who picks his cotton, gathering with it the bolls and trash, 
sells his cotton for practically the same price for which he is sell- 
ing his carefully selected, well cultivated and clean picked cotton. 
The local buyer makes no discrimination, either because he is 
not a judge of cotton, or because the low grades thus help to 
hold down the local market. While he may occasionally buy a 
low grade bale for more than it is worth, he is generally able to 
buy the high grades for much less than they are worth. 

The remedy for this would seem to be the establishment of 
neighborhood classing stations under the direction of state or 
government agents by which the planter could obtain from 
reliable disinterested sources some knowledge of the spinning 
value of his cotton. This would serve the double purpose of 
giving the planter an idea of the value of his cotton and enable 
him to compare the results obtained from different methods of 
cultivation and different varieties of seed. 

After the cotton is picked, demonstrations have shown that it 
can be greatly improved if, prior to ginning, it is placed in a 
closed bin and allowed to warm just short of over-heating. This 
results in a hot-house growth of the immature fibres, while all the 
fibres take up a little more oil, giving the strength and character 
so much desired by the spinner. Actual results by this treat- 
ment have shown an added market value of from one-half cent 
to one and one-sixteenth cents per pound. 



We dream of a mechanical picker that will gather the crop 
free from trash. The genius of the world is, I believe, approach- 
ing a solution of this problem and a mechanical picker will 
be produced which will pick the cotton clean and at a material 
reduction in cost from that of hand picking, which is the most 
expensive operation in the entire process of preparing cotton 
for market. 

Ginning is the first real torture to which the cotton is subjected. 
The saw gin is by far the most practical of all machines yet 
produced for separating the seed and the fibre. To realize that 
this process consists in forming the seed cotton into a roll 
resembling a wooden log, then holding it against a gang of 
saws upon a mandrel usually composed of seventy or eighty 
sharp-toothed saws, ten or twelve inches in diameter, running 
at a speed of four hundred revolutions per minute, is but to 
wonder how a single fibre can escape mutiliation and reach 
the spinner whole, yet a saw gin so constructed that the 
relation of the saw tooth and rib at the point where the fibre 
and seed are separated is such that the fibres are in reality 
pulled from the seed instead of being separated by a shearing 
cut, will in the hands of an expert separate the fibre from the 
seed, unscarified and practically its full length. In the hands of 
the unskilful, the saw gin is the most destructive agency used in 
the preparation of the raw material, not excepting the rapid 
steam compress to which we will refer later. 

A very large per cent, of all cotton bolls contain one 
or more small immature seed, which, in ginning, are carried 
through the ribs with the lint cotton, but these, with other trash 
heavier than the lint, are largely thrown from the cotton by 
centrifugal force after passing through the ribs. In those gins 
using a brush to doff the cotton from the saws, these imperfect 
seed and other trash are again mixed with the fibre and pass 
into the cotton bale, to be removed again at the spinning mill, 
thus reducing the value of the cotton as offered to the spinner. 
By substituting an air-blast to remove the cotton from the saws 
and providing means for collecting the motes and trash after 



8 

once they are separated, the cotton can thus be cleaned in the 
process of ginning. Practical machines are now in operation 
doing this work successfully. 

The air-blast system which handles the seed cotton from the 
planter's wagon or the seed cotton house to the feeders, the gins 
and into the bale box, has much to commend it from the stand- 
point of the spinner. The cotton being subjected in thin sheets 
to a blast of air throughout the process loses much of its 
moisture; the fibres in passing from the saws to the condenser 
are straightened out and with a proper condenser are formed into 
a bat which, if pressed closely by passing between rollers, can 
be laid in the bale in layers, instead of dumping in uneven wads 
to be still further punished under the powerful compress. 

Upon reaching the initial bale box, the treatment which has 
brought disgrace on the American cotton industry begins. If 
a steam tamper is used over the initial bale box to pack the 
cotton, every pound of water from the condensed steam which 
escapes from the steam cylinder drips to the centre of the bale, 
giving what is known as the water packed bale. As the sale of 
water at the price of cotton is alluring, the addition of forty to 
eighty pounds of water which cannot be detected except by 
laboratory test is some inducement to be careless about a leak- 
ing steam cylinder. This, with the storing of loose bales on 
open platforms at the ginnery to absorb still more moisture 
from heavy dews and rains, amounts to a fraud which has taken 
from the spinners annually many millions of dollars, as shown 
by your Secretary's report of last year. 

I wish to say, however, that adding water to cotton bales is 
not limited to America. While in Havre last year and passing 
through well filled cotton warehouses, I saw men everywhere 
throwing streams of water on the dirt floors, ostensibly to lay 
the dust, but in reality to throw tons of water into the ware- 
house to be absorbed by the cotton stored there. I concluded 
this was one way of restoring to the bale the weight of large 
samples which many bales seemed to have given up. I am not 
attempting to cast reflection on any one or on any class in the 



cotton trade, but am simply calling attention to customs which 
result in enormous waste which is a final tax on production. 
Practical machines are in use which eliminate and make almost 
impossible these abuses. The roller folder or dry packer elimi- 
nates the steam tamper. A mechanical device which draws a 
perfect sample throughout the bale as the bale is being formed 
makes unnecessary, under proper organization, the future 
sampling of the bale. The use of a light weight closely woven 
burlap to entirely cover the bale will absorb much less water 
than the heavy coarse woven bagging in general use, and gin 
compression makes unnecessary open uncovered warehouses. 

The mechanical sampler in connection with the gin compress 
furnishes the most perfect sample that can be drawn from a 
bale for it is a complete cross section of the bale. In my own 
experience, I have had no difficulty in making the one sample 
serve as the only one extracted from the bale in its transmission 
from the gin to the spinner. An 8-ounce sample from each of 
15,000,000 bales amounts in the aggregate to 15,000 bales, 
worth at 12 cents a pound, $900,000. Is this not quite enough 
to pay for establishing the character of the cotton crop? Cer- 
tainly three or four or five times this amount is too much. 

The last step in the preparation of the cotton for the spinner 
and the last mechanical operation through which it passes is 
one demanded by the transportation companies, viz., compress- 
ing. The introduction of the rapid steam compress has made 
millions of dollars for those who have owned and operated 
them, but they have cost the cotton industry millions upon 
millions in loss and damage from the unsightly bale, but more 
especially from the air cutting and mutilation of the fibre. 
Some knowledge of the fibre and a glance at the operation of 
the rapid press furnishes convincing proof of these facts. Com- 
pressing cotton is merely pressing the air out of the bale. The 
steam compress is designed to instantly drive out the air by 
dropping upon a 500 pound bale 2,000 tons, equivalent to the 
weight of a railroad train of fifty cars, allowing forty tons for 
each car and load. This smashes the bale instantly to a density 



10 

of sixty to seventy pounds to the cubic foot, when with the ordi- 
nary bale the jaws of the press are ten inches apart. That is 
twice the density of pine wood. The air as the bale reaches the 
high density must cut its way through the bale to escape, which 
it continues to do, until the density of the cotton prevents it, then 
the air remaining is compressed inside the bale, but expands 
when the bale is thrown from the jaws of the press. Much of 
the cotton heretofore called "gin cut" is in reality " air cut," 
the inside of many bales when opened having the appearance 
of being slashed in many directions with a sharp knife. In 
striking contrast to the brutal treatment accorded the cotton 
fibre by the rapid steam compress is the work of the gin com- 
press, in which the power is applied slowly giving the air oppor- 
tunity to escape from the interior of the bale without injury to 
the fibre and securing the required density without compressing 
to a density much beyond that of the bale after it is thrown out 
of the press. Five hundred tons so applied to a bale of the 
dimensions of two feet by two feet by four feet, will enable the 
bale to be tied out with a density of thirty-two pounds to the 
cubic foot, or about the density of pine wood. If the bale is then 
bound with bands, slotted in the ends and fastened with rivet 
hooks, as in the Egyptian bale, for example, the bale will not 
only retain its size and shape but it will be practically a fire- 
proof bale, charring on the outside very much as a log of wood. 
There being no air in the bale and the bands being riveted so 
they cannot yield, the density of the bales remains unchanged 
and the fire does not burrow into the cotton. 

What then is the ideal commercial cotton bale? My answer 
would be, 1st, a bale completely covered; 2d, uniform size for 
all bales; 3d, exact equal weight of tare on all bales; 4th, a 
bale that samples easily, if sampling is necessary. 

Such a bale is possible only when made at the gin where the 
bale is formed and compressed in one operation. Uniformity 
in size of bales makes possible the cutting of all covering the 
same size and all bands the same length, resulting in uniform 
weight of tare. In my own practice, I have found that bales 



11 

made twice the length of the square store with the greatest 
economy of space. For example the bale two feet by two feet 
by four feet will load ioo bales or 50,000 pounds to the standard 
34 or 36-foot car, and will load in two layers. Five pounds of 
closely woven burlap is sufficient to completely cover this bale 
while six bands fastened with riveted hooks are ample, making 
a total tare of 1 1 pounds. These bales are formed in the initial 
bale box by placing the cotton in layers, which not only sepa- 
rate easily when opened up in the picker room, but make 
sampling of the bale easy when that is desirable. 

A careful calculation of the train cost of handling the entire 
cotton crop, loaded at the gin with 100 bales, or 50,000 pounds 
to the car, as compared to the custom of loading 25 bales at the 
gin, transporting to the compress, unloading, repressing, reload- 
ing and forwarding shows a saving to the railroads of 5 per cent, 
on more than $200,000,000 annually; this is 5 per cent, on 
more than one-half the cost of the Panama Canal, a princely 
contribution from the cotton carrying railroads toward the 
maintenance of a system that has brought disgrace upon the 
most important of all the export industries of the United States. 
The adoption of modern methods and gin compression would 
bring to the railway companies the saving of this vast sum with- 
out a dollar of investment on their part. I shall be glad to 
furnish detailed figures in support of this statement to those who 
may be interested. 

The arguments against gin compression thus far made have 
been fully and completely refuted by actual facts and practical 
experience. There is no longer a commercial or economic 
reason for postponing the adoption of gin compression and 
modern methods. The machinery of various makes are at hand 
and at small cost. 

The spinner can bring about the needed reforms by paying 
the market value for the good bale and penalizing the bad bale 
at least for as much as the actual commercial difference in their 
respective values. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



000 927 587 3 • 



1 *« 



